


having faith

by izabellwit



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e05 No Time Like the Past, F/M, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Loss of Trust, Past Child Abuse, Post-Betrayal, Prompt Fic, Trust Issues, a la Gothel, may she never ever rest in peace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izabellwit/pseuds/izabellwit
Summary: Fic request- Rapunzel and Eugene, about him being hurt by Cass betraying them after a fight in No Time Like the Past.Or: Rapunzel and Eugene have a much-needed discussion. For all the regrets of the past, some things you just can't get back.
Relationships: Cassandra & Rapunzel & Varian (Disney), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	having faith

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt fic!! This was was really fun to try my hand at. (Prompts are still open, btw!)
> 
> A quick head’s up— I never actually watched this episode, for a variety of reasons, so I have no idea how everything actually played out. This fic is based off just what I wished would happen and what I’ve heard happened/think happened in the episode. Please bear that in mind! 
> 
> Warnings for mentions of past child abuse and Gothel.

“Rapunzel, _she_ was the one who left _you_.”

Rapunzel slams the door shut behind her, breathing heavily. Her mind feels full, whited out and buzzed with panic—her hands shaking, her teeth grit and jaw aching. Something rises on her tongue and she swallows it back; it rises again, insistent, and she lets out a short scream before she clicks her jaw shut and places a hand over her mouth for good measure. No. No, she can’t lose her cool over this, she can’t— she won’t—!

But what Eugene had said about Cassandra—

She buries her face in her hands, her heart twisting in her chest, the traitorous burn of tears behind her eyes. She hadn’t started out angry, she knows—just shocked, then upset, then stunned small at his dismissal, those words—but the anger has snuck up on her without her noticing, like the build-up of a scream in her chest, and it hits her suddenly and without warning, a burn behind the eyes that is half-fury and half-tears. 

Rapunzel breathes in deep, pressing her palms against her eyes, and sinks down against the door. She could leave, she knows. She could walk away seething, and who knows—maybe if she did, she’d even find a solution to it all. But her feet ache, and breathing is hard, suddenly, with all the tears, and she sinks down to the floor instead, head pillowed her arms and shoulders shaking, her fingers clenched white-knuckled on the sleeves of her dress.

Time passes. Rapunzel stays pressed up against the door, breathing into her arms, hearing through the heavy oak as Eugene paces and mutters darkly around the room. She feels feverish, hot and cold in equal measure; she thinks of the photo, of the way Cassandra had grinned when she ripped it, the toss of her head when Rapunzel had given her a warning look for it. She thinks of Cassandra’s laughter, sharp and bright and always biting, breaking the air like a bell. 

How could Eugene just give her up? How could he act like those moments were nothing? How could he…

Her eyes burn. She thinks of a different laughter, bright and mocking and cruel, and buries her head in her arms. _Cass,_ she thinks, and something bitter twists in her chest. _How could you hate me because of_ **_her?_ ** Gothel was cruel. Gothel was all smiles. Gothel had never liked Rapunzel angry. _If you had to hate me, couldn’t it be because of me?_

Instead it is because of Gothel. Gothel’s choices, Gothel’s cruelties. Always, always Gothel. And there is nothing Rapunzel can do to fix the past, even if she wanted to.

_You’re lucky, Cass._

But if she dared to ever say it to Cassandra’s face, she doesn’t think Cassandra would understand. 

Rapunzel lifts her head, something cold and stiff in her chest. She rubs at it, digging in her fingers over her heart, the unyielding ridge of her collarbone. She stands very slowly. She knocks at the door. She hears a sigh. She opens it.

“Rapunzel—“

“I know.” She stares down at her hand. She can’t meet his eyes. “I—I just—” 

He’s silent. Rapunzel swallows.

“I can’t let her go,” Rapunzel whispers. “I can’t lose her.” She thinks of Cassandra’s laughter, sharp and biting and bright. “Not to _this.”_

When she looks up Eugene’s expression is tight—angry, reluctant, resigned. He can’t seem to meet her eyes, and he exhales all at once, a great sigh that slumps at his shoulders, and he sits down on the bed with his head low. Rapunzel steps up and settles beside him, gingerly. 

Eugene has his hands clasped above his knees. He presses his knuckles against his forehead. His eyes are closed. “I know,” he says, and he sounds very tired. “But I… I can’t.”

Rapunzel looks away. “It’s Cass,” she says. She feels helpless. She doesn’t know the words to help him understand. “She’s… she’s my best friend. She’s important. I, I don’t—I don’t understand how you can just—cut her away.” Her fingers curl in her dress. “Like she never mattered.”

Eugene barely shifts. “It’s _because_ she mattered,” he says, almost a mutter. 

“If it were Lance—”

Eugene laughs, sharp and sudden and almost hysterical, and Rapunzel stops mid-word, staring at him. He clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair. “Sorry,” he says, to the air. “Sorry. Just—” He shakes his head.

“...Eugene.”

He looks away. There’s silence, for a moment.

“I’ve told you before,” Eugene says, and he says it very quietly. “Used to be… every man for himself.” His fingers curl. “Look, Sunshine, I’m not happy about it, but— it _was_ Lance. Once. A long, long time ago.” He glowers at the floor. “But I was the one leaving.”

She has no idea what to say to that. “O-oh.”

“Yeah.” He looks away. “Old wounds, bad blood… well, it’s in the past, now. No use retreading old ground. And he never liked holding grudges, so...”

“You guys never seemed like…” She can’t seem to find the words. “I mean, I never would have thought. Seeing you two now.”

“You wouldn’t, would you?” It’s almost a mumble—thoughtful in a way that is almost grudging. Eugene presses his thumbs against his eyes, goes quiet. Says, almost under his breath: “Damn it all.”

“…Eugene—”

“No, no. I just—yeah. If it were Lance.” He pinches at his brow and lifts his head. “I get it. I do. But Blondie, I didn’t go back for him, and he… well, I like to think he wouldn’t have gone back for me. I wouldn’t have appreciated it. Or deserved it.” 

She bites her lip. “But— seeing you two now, surely you see why— so why, with Cass—?” 

“Because it’s not that simple!” Eugene shakes his head. “It’s _because_ I used to… ugh, I don’t know. Look, I get what you’re saying, but… Sunshine, old regrets or not, I can’t just—y’know? I can’t. I can’t put that sort of faith in her. I can’t trust someone who reminds me of _me_ not to stab me in the back.”

Rapunzel says nothing. She stares at the floor, their mismatched feet, his worn boots and her bare and dusty toes. 

“I’d love it if Cassandra came back,” Eugene says, sudden in the silence. “Really, I would. I mean, I’d have— a whole ton of questions, yeah, and like, some _reasonable_ doubt, but—all in all?” He looks down at the picture in his hands, and something in him seems to slump. “Yes, Rapunzel. I want her to come back.” His grip tightens. “But I can’t hold my breath. I can’t _risk_ it. Not when there’s a very good chance that when Cass actually comes back, it won’t be to say sorry but to hurt us all again.”

“Eugene…”

“I don’t go looking for heartbreak, Blondie. And Cass—she cut _us_ out first.” Eugene looks up at last. “But… you’re right. In a way. If it were Lance… and I should have done better. But I’d rather be suspicious than hopeful. Because anything else…” He shakes his head, uncharacteristically frustrated, beyond words. 

She can’t meet his eyes. “I—I understand.”

“…Yeah.” He reaches out, then, and presses the picture frame into her hands; Rapunzel takes it, abruptly still. “So do I, I guess. Sorry. It was a little overboard of Crowley to just… start throwing things away. And for me to say you should, too.”

“I…”

“Just because I don’t… I mean, I shouldn’t have asked that of you.” 

Rapunzel’s hands tighten on the frame. She stands up, drifting over to the fireplace, and sets the picture back down on the mantle. She brushes the image with her fingertips. Cassandra, smiling. “I’m sorry too.”

“…Rapunzel.” 

She looks back. Eugene offers her a smile. It wears worn and thin on his face, around his eyes; it rings true, regardless. 

“I know, I know, what I just said… but I do admire it. Your faith. Maybe someday I might even feel the same. But until then…” He rubs the back of his neck, and looks almost sheepish. “Think you have enough faith in her for the both of us?”

There’s a memory beating in the back of Rapunzel’s head— _be careful who you trust,_ and the echo of colder laughter—but it is drowned out, suddenly, by the warmth in her chest and the sudden pull of her smile. Rapunzel rubs at her eyes and drops her hands. There is sunlight pooling through the window, brightening the whole of Cassandra’s empty room, silhouetting at Eugene’s back—golden and soft, like it’s just waiting for Cassandra to walk back through the door, whenever that will be.

And Rapunzel has always been good at having faith.

“Of course.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanon that Rapunzel struggles a LOT with feelings of anger and betrayal, in such a way that they often take her off-guard. In this case, though, part of her anger is _why_ Cass betrayed them-- not because of something Rapunzel did to hurt her, but because of something Gothel did that hurt both of them. (Of course, it's more complicated than that, but Rapunzel doesn't know that yet.) Losing Cassandra because of Gothel is something Rapunzel cannot stand, and I personally think that's why she's so against the idea of cutting Cassandra away. Because that's one more precious thing lost to that woman, and Rapunzel _refuses_ to lose anything, or anyone, else. If that makes sense.
> 
> On Eugene's end, just going off what I know of _No Time Like the Past_ from the wiki, he might be dealing so badly with Cassandra's betrayal _because_ it reminds him of the past. I like to think the reason he changes his mind in the canon time-line is less because of that lesson of "friends don't abandon friends," but more because, in a world where he DID go back to rescue Lance, he has more faith in himself... and thus, is more willing to lend the same faith to Cassandra. If teen-Eugene could go back and save a friend, even back then, then maybe Cass can change her mind too.
> 
> Anyways, that's my thinking!! 
> 
> [If you wanna rec this fic, you can reblog it here!!](https://izaswritings.tumblr.com/post/615041430442950656/fic-request-rapunzel-and-eugene-yall-about-him) Also, if you have any questions or just want to talk, [my tumblr](http://izaswritings.tumblr.com) is always open!!
> 
> Any thoughts?


End file.
